Free Spirits
by Andrea O'Down
Summary: Lance wants to ask Ash to marry him, but before he can pop the question, Ash makes it pretty clear that she doesn't want to get married. So what should he do now? And does he really need to give back the engagement bracelet he already bought?


_For the writing-prompts I'm doing on tumblr. An anon asked for "Will you marry me?" for AshXLance._

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 **Free Spirits**

Lance looks down on the bracelet in the box, its delicate silver links, the beautiful blue gems. Okay, they are made of glass, but that's because he couldn't afford the version with sapphires. He would have preferred those, but sometimes, a guy has to compromise.

And now he probably has to give the bracelet back anyway.

He sighs, closing his eyes as he goes over the events of yesterday.

The evening he and Ash invited all their friends for dinner to tell them the great news.

That Ash is pregnant.

Only Johnny knew beforehand and that only because Lance asked him to help him choose the bracelet. Because he's Ash's best friend and Lance wasn't sure if he could do it alone.

And he has to give it to Johnny, the young gorilla looked just as surprised as the rest of their friends when Ash told them the news.

And they congratulated them and then Rosita asked this question.

"Are you going to get married?" the female pig asked, and Lance remembers how his heart skipped a beat when he realized that _this_ was his cue.

He was about to get down on his knee, fumbling for the box with the bracelet, but before he could produce it, even before his knee could touch the ground, Ash blew a raspberry.

"Are you kidding me!?" she called out. "Marriage is for the establishment, _not_ for free spirits like Lance and me!"

Lance thinks he never tried to get back to a standing position so quickly in his life. He almost tripped. No one realized, though.

No one, but Johnny.

He still can see the look the gorilla gave him. Sad and sympathetic, even apologetic, in a way.

Lance takes a deep breath and opens his eyes again.

There's nothing he can do about it.

If Ash doesn't want to get married, then he has to accept that.

Although he would love to marry her.

Because he loves Ash, more than anything else in the world.

And when it comes to love he prefers the old-fashioned way.

Even if that ruins his image of a free spirit.

He doesn't care.

Or he didn't.

Now he does.

Because Ash doesn't want to get married.

And maybe she's right.

He lets his finger glide over the delicate bracelet.

Such beautiful work and now Ash is never going to wear it.

He hears something and quickly hides the box with the bracelet behind his back.

And he manages just in time before Ash enters the bedroom. She stops after a few steps and looks at him.

"Is it true?" she asks.

"Depends on what you mean," Lance says. He doesn't like the serious look on Ash's face so he decides to say something funny. Or at least try to. "If you want to know if it's true that I ate that last cookie, then no, of course not! If you want to know if we're out of cookies, then yes, sadly, it's true."

He adds a laugh, not liking how nervous it sounds, but well, it's a laugh after all.

Ash doesn't laugh, though, so Lance stops.

"Is is true that you wanted to ask me to marry you?" Ash asks.

"How…," Lance says before he can stop himself.

"Johnny," Ash replies. "He told me."

This makes sense. Johnny is the only one who knew after all.

He feels his chest tighten and makes a mental note to give Johnny a piece of his mind later. On the other hand, he didn't tell Johnny to keep this a secret.

Because Lance didn't think it would still be a secret today.

He takes deep breath, lowering his eyes to the floor.

"Yeah," he says. "Yeah, I did." He rises his gaze again to look at Ash. "But I get that you don't want to get married. It's fine."

Ash looks at him, her expression hard to read.

"Ask me," she says.

"What?" Lance asks.

He wonders what Ash is up to. Does she want him to ask her so she can officially refuse him?

He bites down on his lower lip.

"Lance, ask me!" Ash says again, an urgent ring to her voice that tells him he'd better do as she wishes.

"Okay," Lance says, going down on his knee, bringing out the box with the bracelet from behind his back.

He opens it and holds it out to Ash.

He still doesn't like the serious look on her face.

"Will you…," he starts, not liking how hoarse his voice sounds. So he clears his throat before he tries again.

"Will you marry me?" he asks.

And then he closes his eyes because he knows what's coming next.

Ash is going to say no.

It already sends a pang to his heart.

"Yes," Ash says.

Lance almost lets the box fall as he yanks his head up, looking at Ash with wide eyes and his jaw dropped.

What did she say?

"Did you… did you say yes?" he asks.

Ash shrugs. "Yes, I did."

"But…" His throat feels so dry that he has to close his mouth again and swallow before he tries to speak up again.

"But I thought you didn't want to get married," he says.

"That was before I knew you wanted to ask me," Ash replies.

"But I thought free spirits like us don't get married."

"What can I say?" Ash says as she walks up to him, holding out her hand. "I've always been a rebel."

Lance is looking at her, his eyes still wide.

Ash groans, moving her hand before his eyes. "Now do I finally get to wear that bracelet or not?"

"Oh yeah, sure!" Lance says quickly as puts the bracelet around her wrist.

He likes the look of it. He just knew this bracelet would be perfect for Ash.

With a smile he looks up at her, and Ash looks down on him.

After a while she frowns.

"Soooooo, are you going to get up and give me a kiss or do I have to get down?" she asks. "You do realize I'm expecting."

"Oh yes, right!" Lance jumps to his feet, pulling Ash into a hug, but carefully, because of the expecting-part, of course.

Before he places his lips on hers he makes a mental note to thank Johnny for talking to Ash.


End file.
